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Jeffrey Morgan's Media Blackout

And who, disguised as Jeffrey Morgan, writes Media Blackout #164 for a great metropolitan newspaper!

Bruce Timm & Lauren Montgomery & Brandon Vietti — Superman: Doomsday (DC Comics/Warner Premiere DVD) :: DC Comics claims that The Death of Superman is the biggest selling graphic novel of all time and I have every reason to believe them. The biggest reason is that I actually went out and bought all of the various issues which contained the storyline as they came out decades ago — dozens upon dozens of them, month after month and this was at a time when I was buying absolutely no comic books whatsoever. So I give DC full credit for successfully managing to get my hard-earned nickels and dimes at a time when no other comic book company could. But although I ultimately ended up liking the cool new John Henry steel-drivin’ version of Superman, I found the convoluted plot to be in overall need of some serious pruning back. That’s where Bruce Timm and company’s new animated version of the Doomsday saga comes in, which does just that while leaving all of the essential key elements in place.

Amazingly for a feature length animated cartoon, even one which is stickered PG-13, the level of violence is completely off the chart. Not only do folks get unexpectedly knocked off left, right and center; but the Metropolis fight scenes between Superman and Doomsday play harder and faster than the downtown dust-up in Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut. That’s because the literal sense of gravity given the entire proceedings is right up there with the real world physics that the Fleischer brothers imbued their seminal Superman cartoon series with.

SIZZLING PLATTER OF THE WEEK: Ministry & Co-conspirators — Cover Up (13th Planet) :: This is the absolute greatest album of cover versions since Bowie’s crushed larynx curdled milk on Pinups. If you thought that Ministry’s "Jesus Built My Hotrod" was heavy, then you haven’t heard Jackie O. Jourgensen pulverize songs like "Radar Love," "Mississippi Queen," "Space Truckin’ " and "Bang a Gong" into a puréed pulp pudding!